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Chinese mobile games market rises 75% in Q3 to $600 million

Boosted by WeChat games launch

Chinese mobile games market rises 75% in Q3 to $600 million

According to data from iResearch, the Chinese mobile games market rose 75 percent during the three months from July to September, compared to Q3 2012. 

In terms of absolute figures, iResearch estimates the market size to be $600 million (RMB 3.6 billion).

This compares to $3.7 billion for the Chinese online games market, which grew 41 percent during the same period.

We play everyday

In terms of the explosive growth in mobile games, iResearch put this down to the launch of Tencent's WeChat games platform (part of the WeChat v5.0 release) in August.

WeChat released five internally-developed games on the platform, which takes advantage of its extreme virality to drive engagement via short-term leaderboard tables; a similar dynamic to the rise of Kakao in Korea and LINE in Japan.

Structural change

Another significant trend during the period included increased mergers and acquisitions with Tangel Publishing buying Magic Universe, Phoenix Publishing & Media buying 64 percent of mobile developer Muhenet for $50 million, and Ourpalm buying Dovo Technology for $130 million.

In terms of game releases, however, the market is starting to become saturated.

According to iResearch, in China 584 new games were released for Android during September.

[source: iResearch]


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Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.